Portraying charm of old world on celluloid

Paula Malcomson is a Northern Irish actress, well-known for her role of Abby Donovan, wife of the title character in the show ‘Ray Donovan’. Apart from this, she has also been a part of the successful movie franchise ‘The Hunger Games’ and shows like ‘Lost’, ‘Caprica’, ‘Sons of Anarchy’ to name a few. She has also been nominated at ‘Screen Actors Guild Awards’ and ‘Irish Film and Television Awards’ under the category ‘Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series’ and ‘Best Actress in a Supporting Role in Drama’ for the show ‘Deadwood’ and ‘Ray Donovan’.

Malcomson plays the role of a prostitute Trixie in ‘Deadwood’, which airs on AXN. The role was based on a number of "Tricksies", who were prostitutes at The Gem in the US. About the role, she says, “We thought that the character of Trixie could be of an Irish descent as I am Irish and that would be very naturalistic to do. However, I felt that the writing lent itself more to American accent as David Milch is quintessential American in his writing and I did not want to get in a box playing Irish, and I think that was a good choice.” 

“In terms of preparation for the role it was just like you put on those clothes and you sort of you walk down the street and you got oxen, horses and pigs, buildings on the streets; the clothes, the corset of that era and the environment becomes very helpful. I looked at a lot of photographs of women at that time which is how I got into wearing stripes for the character,” she shares. 

A scene, in the show when Trixie (Paula) and Jane (Robin Weigert) get drunk became very popular. About filming the scene Paula says, “I had a lot of practice (laughs). It was a good scene, I haven’t seen that for a while now. It was a great scene to do too because I did not get much of chance to work with Robin, who plays Jane and she is so good. We did not have shots, so we were spinning around to make ourselves dizzy and get on with the scene.” The makers are making a film to conclude the series. 

The movie is set 10 years after the end of season 3 and is expected to premiere in 2019. “Yeah it started on October 5 and we all are getting our costumes and scripts. It is a two-hour film, people have a confluence of events which brings everyone back to the town after 10 years and it is a beautiful script,” she concludes.